Virgin Trains has taken a record market share of travel between Edinburgh and London as it bids to ultimately handle half of all passengers on the UK's busiest domestic air route.

New figures out today reveal an 18 per cent annual increase in Virgin Trains passengers between the UK and Scottish capitals in June. This gave Virgin a 33 per cent share of the air/rail market on that route, beating the previous record of 32 per cent in June 2014.

Looking at services between London to both Edinburgh and Glasgow, a total of 180,000 customers travelled with Virgin in June, up from 152,000 a year earlier.

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On the east coast route between Edinburgh and London, the train operator's market share against airlines was as high as 37 per cent, up two percentage points on its previous peak in 2014. On west coast, Virgin Trains' market share between Glasgow and London was 27 per cent.

Virgin said it has seen similarly strong growth in July and August and expects to retain its record-breaking market share once comparable CAA figures for airlines become available. The increase comes against a rise in the overall travel market, with air/rail between Glasgow and Edinburgh to London reaching 6.7 million journeys in 2016, up from six million the previous year.

“When we took over the east coast route, we set out ambitious plans to gain a 50 per cent market share between Edinburgh and London by 2023,” said David Horne, managing director of the east coast.

“These figures show an encouraging start to that journey and confirm an historic shift in travel patterns towards train. Our customers have responded positively to the improvements in customer service and investment in new train interiors and additional services.”

Virgin's announcement coincides with the release of a new report by sustainable transport charity Transform Scotland , which found there has been a major shift from air to rail travel between central Scotland and London during the past decade. This means that although overall air and rail travel is increasing, carbon emissions are falling.